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ENVIRONMENT-CHILE:
Something Stinks
in Privatised Sewage Treatment
Plant
María Cecilia Espinosa
SANTIAGO, (IPS) - A sewage
treatment plant that began to
operate two years ago in the
Chilean capital, touted as the
most modern of its kind in Latin
America, has become a source of
foul odours and constant traffic
of trucks hauling sewage through
lower-income neighbourhoods.
Local residents of nine
municipalities in Santiago held
a protest outside the French
company Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux,
which along with Spain's Aguas
de Barcelona holds a controlling
stake in the Aguas Andinas firm,
the owner of the La Farfana
plant that was built after
Chile's sanitation services were
privatised in 1999.
Alberto Muñoz, the head of the
Multisocial and Intercommunal
Coordinating Committee in Zona
Poniente - the western portion
of the city, which is home to
1.5 million of Greater
Santiago's nearly five million
people - was in Paris that day,
May 13, taking part in a
demonstration outside the Suez
Lyonnaise headquarters where a
shareholders meeting was being
held.
Just 45 days after La Farfana
began to function in October
2003, the plant suffered the
first breakdown of its
biodigesters.
The next crisis occurred in
October 2004, when the stench
became so strong that the
residents of the west side of
Santiago began to kick up a
fuss, complaining that not only
did they have to live with the
smell, but they had also seen
their water bills soar by up to
200 percent.
Senator Nelson Avila of the
co-governing Radical Social
Democratic Party admitted to IPS
that privatisation "has does
nothing to improve the quality
of the services, has
significantly driven up the
costs, and, worse still, the
users themselves are being
forced to foot the bill for the
few investments that the company
has made."
Mayor Johnny Carrasco of
Pudahuel, the district where the
plant is located, and John
Maulén, the head of the
Association of Consumers and
Users of Maipú, another of the
affected municipalities, told
IPS that lower-income areas have
been discriminated against,
suffering negligence when it
comes to dealing with the
present environmental crisis.
The odours that became
unbearable in October 2004 were
the result of a build-up of
30,000 tons of sewage, the
immediate removal of which was
demanded by the Environmental
Health Service, which fined
Aguas Andinas over 100,000
dollars.
The Environmental Health Service
also cancelled the sewage
treatment portion of consumer
water bills, which meant a loss
of around two million dollars a
month for the company.
The steps taken by the
French-Spanish-owned company to
curb the emission of foul odours
involved the adoption of a
system aimed at accelerating the
drying of the sludge and
transferring it to a dump in the
municipality of Tiltil, 80 km
northwest of the capital.
The route, which runs through
seven municipalities, was dubbed
"la ruta de la caca" ("the poop
route").
On Oct. 25, 2004, one of the
company's trucks spilled sludge
on a road, causing a car
accident and angering President
Ricardo Lagos, who ordered
Spanish Ambassador Enrique
Krauss to demand that the
executives of Aguas de Barcelona
come up with in-depth solutions
to the problems, and that the
company stop charging its users
for water treatment services.
The privatisation of the
Metropolitan Sanitary Works
formed part of a plan to build
16 modern treatment plants to
deal with the sewage generated
by Greater Santiago.
La Farfana, the second plant to
be built after El Trebal, is the
fifth biggest in the world and
processes an average of 8.8
cubic metres of water per
second, which amounts to 50
percent of the sewage generated
by some 3.3 million people.
Construction of the plant cost
315 million dollars.
Aguas Andinas has put forth a
plan to resolve the plant's
operational failures, and it
intends to continue removing the
sludge by truck.
Mauricio Ilabaca, the Health
Ministry's regional secretary,
told IPS that La Farfana had
complied with the environmental
impact studies and the city's
statutes.
"What happened was a defect in
operations that no one expected
to occur, and what is needed is
drastic action by the sanitation
company, which should be
required to pay compensation and
transfer the sludge, avoiding an
impact on the health of local
residents," he said.
Ilabaca denied that the
authorities had acted in a
discriminatory manner in the
current case, arguing that
sewage treatment plants are
normally located downriver,
which in this case means the
western part of the city.
"One of the fundamental aims of
this government is tackling
inequalities. We must take
efficient, timely action when it
comes to situations in which the
lowest income sectors face
health risks, because they are
the most vulnerable," said the
official.
Maulén, who led the May 13
protest, complained that no real
solutions have been presented
for the environmental problems
involving La Farfana. He pointed
out that local residents merely
have 60 days to lodge their
complaints, as part of a new
environmental impact assessment
by the company.
"We don't know if our opinions
will be taken into account,
because this is a technical and
political issue, and the
pressure that Aguas Andinas has
brought to bear on the
government and the media is not
insignificant," said the
community leader.
The plant "had technical
difficulties due to a deeper
underlying problem. They
promised that there would be no
odours and that the sewage would
all be treated in La Farfana, so
it is unacceptable for them to
now say they will continue
transferring the sludge by
truck, which was supposed to be
merely an emergency measure,"
said Maulén.
But "The state also shares part
of the responsibility, since it
holds a 35 percent stake in the
sewage company," he added.
Maulén also said the government
accepted a solar sewage sludge
drying system which is not
suitable to Santiago's winter
climate, as well as
"inappropriate" anaerobic
biodigesters.
The activist wondered if the
authorities would have reacted
this slowly if the complaints
had come from residents of the
city's wealthier districts.
"In La Dehesa (a rich
municipality) there is a small
sewage treatment plant that is
completely covered and that does
not emit any foul odours," said
Maulén.
For the first time, Aguas
Andinas expressed a willingness
to sit down and hold a dialogue
with the civil society
organisations and the state,
brokered by the University of
Chile.
The Intercommunal Coordinating
Committee will also present its
technical observations to the
government and will continue to
work on raising awareness in the
community and drawing attention
to the issue in the press.
The municipality of Pudahuel is
not only home to La Farfana but
is also crossed by the Mapocho
River, into which 11
municipalities dump 25 percent
of their sewage.
Mayor Carrasco, who has
spearheaded the complaints to
the centre-left Lagos
administration, told IPS that
"there have been a few attempts
to patch up the problem, but no
real solutions."
The local residents are
demanding "that the company
invest in sewage sludge drying
systems that use more expensive
technologies," he said. "Hauling
the sludge by truck merely drags
the problem about, from one
place to another."
"Due to the technical
difficulties, La Farfana has
turned out to be a failure, and
the government institutions that
approved the project should be
held accountable," said the
mayor.
"The poorest sectors always
carry the burden for everyone
else's comfort. Some point to
technical factors, but we at
least deserve compensation, and
for things to start working
properly, rather than having to
foot the cost of improvements
for those who are so much better
off than we are," he argued.
Carrasco acknowledged that Lagos
had attempted to take a hand in
the matter. But he added that
the president's "willingness
must be accompanied by policies
and firm decisions aimed at
coming up with real solutions."
The company "must invest
whatever is necessary to respect
the quality of life of people
who have been complaining about
this for two years. The
truth is that we're tired of
this whole business," added the
mayor.
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